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UNICEF’s New Campaign Explains the Worthless Nature of Facebook “Likes”

UNICEF Sweden has released a series of striking commercials that encourages audience to give money, not just Faceook “likes”, for charitable causes. The “Facebook Likes Don’t Save Lives” emotional spots that lead to the UNICEF page dedicated to polio vaccines use a sad irony to highlight that “likes” don’t buy life-saving medicine, while money does.

The campaign’s centerpiece is a simple but impressive TV commercial that features a poor young boy named Rahim who is sometimes worried that one day he will get sick like his mom and won’t be able to take care of his younger brother. But in fact he is not afraid since “today UNICEF Sweden has 177,000 likes on Facebook. Maybe they will reach 200,000 by summer,” he says. The video states that for 49 SEK (approx. $7.5) UNICEF can vaccinate 12 children against polio, and this may be more valueble than Facebook affections. The video on YouTube has already gone viral and generated over 70,000 views since April 24.

The “Facebook Likes Don’t Save Lives” initiative also features three other videos based on the non-buying, worthless nature of likes. These videos feature a middle-aged men and his younger male companion who want to pay for a dinner, a hairstyle and a sweater with Facebook likes, but of course the restaurant, store and barbershop don’t accept such payments. “Vaccines can’t be bought with Likes either. Make a donation at Unicef.se to help save children’s lives,” state the ads, directing the audience to the UNICEF site, where they can give real money to purchase vaccines for real people.